The 10 Worst-Performing Cities In The World

The global recession officially ended in 2010. Since then many countries have begun experiencing economic growth again. However, North American and Western European nations are recovering at a much slower pace than the rest of the world.

In fact, the slowest-growing metropolitan areas are located in the United States, Western Europe and earthquake-damaged Japan, according to Brookings Institute’s Global Metro Monitor 2011. 24/7 Wall St. has examined the Brookings report to identify the world’s largest cities that just cannot seem to recover.

Brookings Institute’s Global Metro Monitor 2011 rated the recovery of the 200 largest metropolitan regions in the world. The rankings are based on a combination of the change in income and employment in each city between 2010 and 2011. According to the report, the fastest-growing cities are located outside North America and Western Europe, while all the slowest-growing ones are within those continents.

When it comes to large metropolitan economies, both the U.S. and Europe are being outpaced by the rest of the world. But unlike many cities in Western Europe, cities in the U.S. are generally recovering — albeit slowly. In the U.S., both income and employment in the cities increased 0.9% between 2010 and 2011. The country, however, is not recovering evenly. Nine of the world’s slowest-growing 25 metro regions are located in the U.S. But the U.S. also has 20 cities among the fastest-growing 100 areas as well.

Europe is a different story altogether. Eight out of the 10 metro regions with the worst growth are located in Western Europe. According to the Brookings report, “metro economies are … affected by the strength or weakness of their geographic neighbors and key trading partners. Nowhere was this clearer last year than in Western Europe, where crises affecting the eurozone hampered growth across many of the continent’s metropolitan areas.” With the exception of Germany, the European Union has generally stagnated. Austerity measures, imposed to reduce eurozone nations’ deficits and pay down sovereign debt, have only slowed these regions further.

The U.S economy has begun to recover as a nation, with a few exceptions. It is perhaps not surprising that the main cause for the slow growth in Western Europe is also hurting some American cities — mainly cuts in government expenditures. In Richmond and Sacramento, the two American cities on the list, the government is among the biggest employers. But with austerity measures imposed, just like in the eurozone, these cities have been particularly hurt by government layoffs. Also similar to eurozone cities, the port city of Richmond has been hurt by declining trade.

24/7 Wall St. examined Brookings’ 2011 Global Metro Monitor report, which ranked the 200 largest global metropolitan regions based on a combination of the change in income and employment in each city between 2010 and 2011. We specifically looked at the 10 metropolitan regions where employment and income contracted or stagnated. Brookings provided economic information by country on GDP, income, population and the annual changes. In our analysis of these 10 regions, 24/7 Wall St. included employment statistics and industrial profiles of the American cities from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.